The Forsyte Saga - Volume 1

He had been fond of young Jolyon: the boy had been in a good set at

College, had known that old ruffian Sir Charles Fiste's sons--a pretty

rascal one of them had turned out, too; and there was style about

him--it was a thousand pities he had run off with that half-foreign

governess! If he must go off like that why couldn't he have chosen

someone who would have done them credit! And what was he now?--an

underwriter at Lloyd's; they said he even painted pictures--pictures!

Damme! he might have ended as Sir Jolyon Forsyte, Bart., with a seat in

Parliament, and a place in the country!

It was Swithin who, following the impulse which sooner or later urges

thereto some member of every great family, went to the Heralds' Office,

where they assured him that he was undoubtedly of the same family as the

well-known Forsites with an 'i,' whose arms were 'three dexter buckles

on a sable ground gules,' hoping no doubt to get him to take them up.

Swithin, however, did not do this, but having ascertained that the

crest was a 'pheasant proper,' and the motto 'For Forsite,' he had

the pheasant proper placed upon his carriage and the buttons of his

coachman, and both crest and motto on his writing-paper. The arms he

hugged to himself, partly because, not having paid for them, he thought

it would look ostentatious to put them on his carriage, and he hated

ostentation, and partly because he, like any practical man all over

the country, had a secret dislike and contempt for things he could not

understand he found it hard, as anyone might, to swallow 'three dexter

buckles on a sable ground gules.'

He never forgot, however, their having told him that if he paid for them

he would be entitled to use them, and it strengthened his conviction

that he was a gentleman. Imperceptibly the rest of the family absorbed

the 'pheasant proper,' and some, more serious than others, adopted the

motto; old Jolyon, however, refused to use the latter, saying that it

was humbug meaning nothing, so far as he could see.

Among the older generation it was perhaps known at bottom from what

great historical event they derived their crest; and if pressed on the

subject, sooner than tell a lie--they did not like telling lies, having

an impression that only Frenchmen and Russians told them--they would

confess hurriedly that Swithin had got hold of it somehow.

Among the younger generation the matter was wrapped in a discretion

proper. They did not want to hurt the feelings of their elders, nor to

feel ridiculous themselves; they simply used the crest....